Andrew Billen | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/profile/andrewbillen
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James Herbert interview: from the archive, 14 February 1993https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2013/mar/21/james-herbert-interview-1993
Horror writer James Herbert - who has died aged 69 - talks to Andrew Billen in this 1993 Observer interview from the archive<p>FESTSCHRIFTEN are usually published by academic presses on the occasion of their subjects' 65th birthdays - tactful timing that allows contributors to bask in the reflected glory of a presence unlikely to be much longer a threat to them. It was generous, then, of Clive Barker and Stephen King to write essays for By Horror Haunted, a collection of tributes to James Herbert , the best-selling of Britain's horror novelists. At 49, Herbert still has plenty of time to steal sales from them.</p><p>The generosity of the book's publisher, Hodder and Stoughton, turned out to be even greater. After 16 years in which Hodder sold 11 million of his paperbacks in Britain, Herbert, a former advertising art director, has signed a £1.7 million, two-novel contract with Harper Collins. A small consolation for Hodder, which has also recently lost Jeffrey Archer to Harper Collins, is that Herbert's sixteenth novel, Portent, is now in its eleventh week in the top 10 bestseller list.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2013/mar/21/james-herbert-interview-1993">Continue reading...</a>James HerbertBooksHorrorCultureThu, 21 Mar 2013 10:48:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2013/mar/21/james-herbert-interview-1993Photograph: David Sillitoe for the GuardianJames Herbert, horror novelist, in 2001. Photograph: David Sillitoe/The GuardianPhotograph: David Sillitoe for the GuardianJames Herbert, horror novelist, in 2001. Photograph: David Sillitoe/The GuardianAndrew Billen2013-03-21T10:48:00ZWhy I love American TVhttps://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jul/28/features.review27
British television could once boast the best writers, actors and directors in the world... but no longer. The greatest shows on earth now come from the United States<p>In May 1961, Newton Minow, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, gave an address to the owners of America's television stations. 'When television is good, nothing - not the theatre, not the magazines or newspapers - nothing is better,' Newt told his Washington audience. 'But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine or newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you, and keep your eyes glued to that set, until the station signs off. You will observe a vast wasteland.' </p><p>The phrase 'vast wasteland' stuck. US television's self-image never recovered, nor did its reputation among intellectually aspirant Americans. In Britain, by contrast, we have our complaints but we acknowledge TV's place in the culture. In the contest between Lord Thomson's infamous off-the-cuff about an ITV franchise being a licence to print money and the much repeated platitude that Britain has the best television in the world, smugness won. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jul/28/features.review27">Continue reading...</a>CultureFilmSat, 27 Jul 2002 23:28:13 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jul/28/features.review27Andrew Billen2002-07-27T23:28:13Z